Budapest (MTI) – The opposition Együtt party calls for a change in attitudes towards people living with disabilities, a statement sent to MTI on Saturday showed.
Despite 600,000-700,000 Hungarians living with permanent health damage and disabilities, the change in attitudes has been very slow and some government decisions suggested that the interests of people living with disabilities were less important than others. The party said it was “symbolic” that during the revamp of Budapest’s third metro line, building disabled access to some of the stops is planned to be omitted in order to cut back on the project’s total costs. Additionally, a significant part of the stops have no proper disabled access along the route of Budapest’s new intertwining tram network, Egyutt said.
Együtt expressed concern about the utilisation of European Union funding for institutional care to disabled people. The purpose of such funding would be to help as many of the disabled in institutions as possible to live among more custom-fit arrangements. According to Együtt , several professional mistakes have been made that could result in lost funding.
The party also called for increased involvement of the interest representation bodies of people living with disabilities in decision making and the preparation of policies affecting them.
Source: MTI
